Thursday, January 1, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Do You Remember...the first time you saw the movie, "The Day The Earth Stood Still"? I sure do...I watched it on our black and white television, in the living room of our house in Tulsa, OK, the winter of 1960. "We have come to visit you in peace and goodwill", said Michael Renne, as Klaatu the alien, in this 1951 science-fiction thriller. It was scary in a strange way, somehow the aliens were more reassuring than the humans... We went to the Leawood Theatre, in Ranchmart Shopping Center, the other day to see "Marley and Me".(Don't go see this movie unless you love to cry. As a pet owner, I thought "Old Yeller" was bad, this movie takes the cake)Inside the refreshment area of the theatre was the owner, Wade Williams' collection of memorabilia from the movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and standing behind velvet ropes was Gort himself... ...The alien's huge, silent but deadly robot He hardly did anything the whole movie but stand like a sentinel, and it still scared the heck out of me. I must say it was cool when he melted the soldiers' weapons with his ray-beam.I grabbed the camera and here is a shot of Gort and one original of many posters used for marketing the show. The poster is mounted in a wall frame and some of the frame obscures the edges. Interestingly, on the poster the studio depicted Gort like King Kong, carrying away Patricia Neal who was conveniently attired in lingerie...there is no scene like that in the movie...Gort! Klaatu Barada Nikto!

1 comment:

"The Day the Earth stood still" has always been one of my favorite movies of all time. The special effects were outstanding for that period of time in movie making. Who could ever forget "Klaatu Barada Nikto", the 3 little words that were said to Gort the robot, to prevent him from destroying the earth? Mankind still has it's petty little squabbles and makes war a household name.- Joe SmithHohenwald, TN.